Tuesday, 14 April 2015

Tham Than Lot National Park - คายัค บ้านบ่อท่อ

We walked along a wooden walkway where we were taken to a floating raft and prepared for the next step of our journey - now if you are worried about Safety then this may be the time to stop. But as a family we decided to continue - Jemma had her life jacket on and was going into the lead canoe and then we would follow.

We were taken to Tham Lot Cave to begin with - I was under the impression that there used to be one of the world's tallest stalagmite but this as not shown to us. We kayaked quite a way and it was then clear that we could have taken a fishing boat for this bit - but this was more fun - right?

We kayaked past a number of 'homes' which were also set up to 'grow' oysters? It was at this point that we were taken into our first cave - pretty creepy as it was initially very dark... But as we turned the corner the light was seen - great - and where was everybody else? They had missed this cave because they were on the fishing boats!

It was at this point that we stopped to have a walk through the mangrove swamps on a walkway of course. After this it was back on the kayaks.

We then paddled through more mangrove swamps - stopping to look at the creatures populating the water's edge.

Then we were through the much smelly 'bat cave' - not for everyone!

The next stop seemed to be a little more organized and there were park rangers carefully watching us enter them - this was the Big Headed Ghost Cave (Pee Tua Hoh Cave) where we saw the much talked about cave paintings.

This was fascinating - wow - stories have been written about these paintings being of a certain age BUT then I can find very little about these cave paintings.

This was a stained sign outside and provided me with the most information.

"The Big-Headed Ghost Cave or the Skull Cave is located in Mo 2, Ban Bo Tho, Krabi Province's Ao-luk District. The villagers here call it Skull Cave because in 2497 skulls were found in the cave."

"It is a limestone cave with stalagmites and stalactites. Cave paintings are found on the roof and the walls of the cave. Compared to other caves in the South of Thailand, this cave is believed to have the largest number of mural paintings. The painted murals in the cave can be divided into three main categories: those in the shape of human beings and animals, nonhuman being and those shaped like a hand and foot. A variety of colours was used in the painting auch as red, black, yellow and brown."

"These cave paintings are of immense archaeological value. They can be regarded as convincing evidence that around 3,000 years ago there was a prehistoric community on the coast of the Andaman Sea who relied on natural resources in this area of food and shelter."

There seemed to be a plethora of all these caves and we investigated all of them!!!!

This was not an easy walk for any of us.

After the caves we returned to the kayaks and paddled carefully back to our stop! (I do here tales that Phu Tara Pool is in the forest near to here - this was the pool which was used in the filming of The Beach).